1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a method of laser processing a mold surface to form an embossing pattern, thereby improving an appearance of an injection-molded product.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to recent trends in the development of vehicles, in addition to performance, design is considered important. From the point of view of a purchaser, design of a vehicle is an important factor that can affect his or her impression of the vehicle. Thus, the design of various parts of a vehicle has developed. Also, in plastic panels of a vehicle, such as interior and exterior door trims, a dashboard, etc., instead of the hard texture of a plastic, an embossing pattern as similar to clothes is formed on the panel so that the panel looks elegant.
In this way, with respect to the embossing pattern formed on the surface of the plastic panel, a cloth-like embossing pattern that highlights the continuity of a pattern is established. As shown in FIG. 1, a natural type embossing pattern 1, which was previously used, has the hard texture like plastic, possibly giving one a cheap look. However, a recently developed cloth-like embossing pattern gives a soft, fabric-like, and sophisticated feeling, further improving occupant's satisfaction.
However, according to a conventional chemical etching method for processing such an embossing pattern, it is only feasible to fabricate a cell type geometric embossing pattern 2 that is not continuous, so a continuous cloth looking embossing pattern cannot be obtained.
Specifically, the chemical etching method for embossing a large-scaled 3D injection mold is carried out such that an embossing pattern is first printed on a mask film with a chemical etching process, the mask film is applied onto a surface of the mold, and the surface is indirectly selective-etched to form the embossing pattern thereon. However, when forming the embossing pattern using the chemical etching method, the mask film is inevitably subjected to stretch and division, causing a seam to be created, which needs a separate repairing process.
Further, upon repairing the seam, the natural type embossing pattern 1 does not exhibit a repaired portion because its shape is atypical, whereas the geometric embossing pattern 2 and a technical embossing pattern 3 exhibit the repaired seam, deteriorating an appearance of a product, and the cloth-like embossing pattern having a continuous linear form is difficult to be formed because, when manually processed, multiple mask films do not match each other, making it difficult to form the continuous pattern.
Thus, there is a need to provide a method of processing a mold surface to form a cloth-like 3D embossing pattern, which could not be obtained using a conventional chemical etching method, thereby improving an appearance of an injection-molded product.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.